1. Keep it simple!
The only devices I use is my mobile phone and my speaker!
I don’t know about your school, but in the different schools I have worked at…I have had many troubles trusting the digital boards, the classroom speakers or the internet connection! So I decided to carry the music with me all the time.
Here you have the spotify list with all the songs.
2. Every student is intelligent! Let them know!
The multiple intelligences theory by Howard Gadner is changing the way I teach. Using the songs in class allow my students to stand out in ways they normally can’t when they are in the school. Spot their intelligences and tell them how good they are!
3. Every student is unique and multidimensional!
I should take into account that my students are multidimensional people and have a unique way of experience life. What I do is using the songs to talk about or to experience all these dimensions :).
4. Every student has their own rhythm!
Songs are a great resource to attend to diversity, every activity regarding the song can be done by everybody and the feeling of belonging to a group when they are singing together is great!
5. Students only learn what they love….and they love music!
The latest studies in Neuroeducation tell us how our student’s brain works. Francisco Mora is an Spanish expert in Neuroeducation and author of “You can only learn what you love”, one of the messages of Neuroeducation is that if we want to help our students learn….we have to engage their emotions! I believe music is an excellent way to do it!:D
6. They do learn English with the songs!
I don’t know about you but I got super interested in the English language when I was a teenager because my favourite artists sang in English!
Pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar contents are in every song, we just have to spot them and make our students focus on these aspects when they are singing.
7. How do I do it?
I select one song every week and we always spend the 10 first minutes of the lesson singing.I do the same in all my lessons.
So ,I have a precious time during the week to focus on pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, multiple intelligences activities and games, reflect about life meaning and make them feel unite in their diversity.
Not to mention that the activity is highly motivating and they are waiting for you to enter the classroom and press play! (You save yourself time because you don’t need to tell them to be quiet and sit down because they are already waiting!nice!)
I hope you find this information interesting and useful for your classroom.
This blog aims to provide you, my fellow teachers, with some extra material to help you on your daily work. We know that our proffession is wonderful and tyring at the same time, so feel free to use these materials to make it a little bit easier and use them as you want.
Lots of love,
osow